Freedom and Other Dreams
by ShadowBobcat10
Summary: Joey Verity is an human-avian hybrid with Minddrinker abilities in the School. His life wasn't that bad. That was before Male Subject Eight escaped. The whitecoats changed. Tests were more frequent and Subjects were separated. One day, the whitecoats offered him a challenge: be the first one out of the testing and leave the School forever. Except leaving was not what he expected.


**Author's note: This is spin-off of _Ava, Number Twelve_ , except with her friend Joey. ****It takes place around the same time as Ava's adventures. Hope you enjoy!  
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Part 1: What Dreams are Made Of

 _"Ah," came the muffled scream of Joey Verity. He ran harder. He was not going to be captured again after leaving the despicable School._

 _Joey looked behind him and saw a large net descend on him. He panicked, turning into a small rat._ Wow, crazy escape, _he thought. Joey crawled out from under, and he turned back into avian-human hybrid form._

 _"Come back, Subject Eleven!" Calvin called. Joey turned around as he reached a cliff. The ground stretched far below him. He couldn't see the bottom._

It's okay, _he thought._ Just jump. If Ian can fly, then so can I. _Joey tensed and jumped off._

 _Falling felt good. Joey liked how the winds whipped through his hair. Still, dying was not an option, so Joey opened his wings. Even though he couldn't fly, he hoped he could slow his fall enough to save himself._

 _"He jumped!" Joey heard a whitecoat shout. "Get the copter!"_

 _Joey knew the helicopter was a very fast piece of technology used to fly and hover in the air. His fall would be much slower than a helicopter. Joey was going to have to learn to_ fly.

 _There were days in the gym when eraser Ari flew, showing off to the Subjects. It had been a long time since Joey saw Ari fly, but he still remembered. He tried some awkward flapping, but nothing really worked. He was still falling._

Flap harder, _Joey thought._ Faster, faster, faster! _The ground was finally visible, but it was zooming towards Joey alarmingly fast. It probably had been a bad idea to jump._ Come on, why can't flying be easier?

 _Joey flapped his wings listlessly. He heard the ear-splitting "whap" of helicopter blades cutting the air. It was getting closer._

 _"I see him. He's Fang," one whitecoat shouted from the cliff. Somehow, Joey could hear him over the helicopter. "Get him, he's falling. He looks like a big dark chicken." Joey flapped harder._

 _Almost as if there was a diving being helping him, a gust of wind blew Joey from under him. His wings caught the blast and Joey glided for a moment. He flapped, getting the rhythm of it, and ascended. He angled the tips of his wings and turned right._ I'm flying!

 _Sadly, during Joey's flight, the helicopter caught up, the blades close. Joey flew, zipping above the treetops. He knew once he passed the forest, he could land and run invisibly. That was one of his powers. But trees stretched in all directions._

 _Joey turned at the sound of a net being shot from the helicopter. In the air, Joey could move in all three dimensions. He quickly dodged the net, swooping down into the trees. It was dark below the canopy, but Joey realized the copter couldn't fly in the dense trees. Joey could fly between the branches, but he knew he would have to get to society soon._

 _Flying was hard work. Joey landed on the ground. He ran through the forest, hearing the helicopter above him. Suddenly, he tripped, falling into a white net._

Darn it, _Joey thought as the sweet feeling of freedom disintegrated. He was caught, the woven PBA net stopping him. He saw the face of Calvin peering down on him._

 _"Too bad," Calvin smiled. "Wake up," he added._ Joey woke up in a dark dog crate, with Calvin unlocking his door. Once again, it was a dream. The horrors of the new day crashed on him and Joey wanted to go back to bed. The bliss of imagined escaped was all he wanted.

"You will be put through a testing. You will go against the other Subjects. May the best subject win," Calvin said.

Joey looked at him strangely. Test never had the subjects go against each other before, but after Female Subject Twelve and Ian escaped, the whitecoats weren't the same. They stopped showing Ari's flights, and the Subjects had to sleep in dog crates again. They kept the subjects apart, so Joey hadn't seen his best friend Klaus, or Male Subject Ten, since Ian disappeared.

Calvin let Joey out and led him to another room. It was pretty big, with white PBA walls and a door.

Calvin picked up a clipboard. "Subject Eleven, you will be put in a maze with all the other Subjects," he read. "You will be given a belt, dagger, and water bottle. You will be going against all the other Subjects. The first Male and Female Subject to finish will leave this facility. All the others will stay." Calvin Finished reading. He put a bracelet on Joey's left arm, wrote a few things down, and nodded.

Joey went to the door. Calvin unlocked it with Calvin's bracelet and Joey stepped in. The Testing had begun.

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 **Any good? Please let me know in a review if you want more!  
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